A Morning at the Pool
by Sandileina
Summary: Humour with a slightly cracky flavour. The Rikkai boys spend a little time training at their local swimming pool!


**Disclaimer: **… Make my day. –Points gun-

**Rating: **G

**Warnings: **One tiny mention of shounen-ai, Niou.

**Summary: **Humour with a slightly cracky flavour. The Rikkai boys spend a little time training at their local swimming pool!

**Author's notes:** Another Rikkai drabblething. **You don't have to have read the ones that come before this, but it might help a bit. **The drabblething list goes:

**Times of Stress**

**Passing the Time**

**How to ask out Marui Bunta**

**Four Days Later**

**October Ice**

**Because I Love You**

**Evil**

**Further Nonsense**

**Dear Diary**

**Kind of… the same**

**100 Word Challenges**

**Driver in a Hurry, Child in a Coma**

**Doctor, doctor!**

**The Woes of Solomon Grundy**

**I'm Not Going**

**The Little Things**

**He WHAT?!**

**Operation: Christmas Party**

**Being Fukubuchou**

**Once Upon a Time**

**My Brother Bunta**

**Dear Diary: Living with Niou-senpai**

**A Morning at the Pool**

Well, lots of people have said they like Jackal's random bursts of randomness. I listen to your comments. Here's a few more of those moments for you. Enjoy sensibly. ;p

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There's a set rhythm to swimming that Marui has always found hard to appreciate. Maybe that's why he's not a very good swimmer, come to think of it…

Although, to be perfectly fair, it's quite hard to swim well when there are two people hell bent on trying to half-drown you.

"Marui, Akaya! Stop messing around!"

Spluttering indignantly, Marui swallowed pool water in his efforts to protest. "I'm _not_!" he coughed, making his way to the side of the pool and holding on. "Honestly, fukubuchou, I'm trying to swim here!"

"So'm I," Akaya said with his best wide-eyed pout. "Marui keeps getting in my way."

"Well, if you swam in a straight line…"

"I am!"

"No you're _not_, you little liar. This," Marui flailed his hands, "is not a straight line!"

Sanada sighed and sent a weary glance towards Yanagi, who was sitting calmly by the poolside and taking notes in his notebook. 'Is this really necessary?' his look seemed to ask.

"And 'Haru's throwing things at me too! He's trying to drown me by knocking me out! Fukubuchou! You're not _listening_!"

"What's going on?" Yukimura asked, making his way to the side of the pool and panting for breath. His hair was tied back in a short ponytail for swimming; it wasn't a look that most of the Regulars were used to, but there was no doubt that it suited him.

Sanada gave a long-suffering sigh. "Marui, Akaya and Niou."

"Ah. 'Haru, if you don't sit still and behave then I'll make you do this exercise with the rest of us, fear of water or no. Bunta, Akaya, you're going to race Yagyuu and myself. A four-length relay. Alright?" That should stop them fighting.

"Ok," Akaya nodded eagerly, but Marui didn't look happy.

"That's not fair though," he protested. "You swim like a fish, Mura."

"Pisces. Tough. That just means you'll have to try your best, na?"

"Can I referee?" Jackal asked, also out of breath as he joined them, treading water.

"Of course. Yagyuu, would you like to be first or second?"

"I'll take first," Yagyuu said, making his way to the shallow end of the pool. Yukimura nodded and turned to Marui and Akaya.

"This is how it'll work," he said. "One of you starts at the shallow end, one of you starts at the deep end. The person at the shallow end, person A, will race to their partner and tag them. Then person B will swim to the shallow end, then back to the deep end and tag the person A. Then person A will swim to the shallow end. First of us to complete that wins. Got it?"

"So person B takes both their lengths at once, right?" Marui asked.

"That's right."

"I'm A!" Akaya said immediately. Marui scowled at him and splashed him half-heartedly before suddenly brightening up and nodding.

"Alright. Let's kick their asses, Aka-chan!" he cheered, heading for the deep end with an amused Yukimura.

Sanada sat down next to Yanagi with another sigh. "How can Yukimura solve every single problem with such sensible solutions?" he complained. "Competition against himself and Yagyuu will probably stop them fighting until we leave the swimming pool. Why didn't I think of that?"

"Well, you're gifted in other areas of leadership," Yanagi said consolingly, not taking his eyes off his scribbles.

"Yeah, like shouting," snickered Niou.

Jackal raised a hand into the air. "Ready?" he yelled. Yagyuu and Akaya tensed. "Set!" They prepared to kick off the wall. "… Hamster!" They turned to look at him.

"… Hamster?" Yagyuu said slowly.

Jackal looked annoyed. "It's a perfectly good starting word! Oh, fine, ok. Picky, picky, picky," he muttered under his breath. He raised his hand again. "Ready! Set! Wasabi!"

Akaya kicked off and was a quarter of the way down the pool before he was called back. "What?" he demanded, swimming back to the starting wall.

"False start," Jackal declared. "I said 'wasabi', not 'hamster'. You're meant to go on hamster. It was a test of your reflexes."

"But… I thought we started on a random word!!"

"I said hamster was the starting word, didn't I? Pay attention. You have a three second time penalty."

"What?!"

"Ready! Set! Hamster!"

Yagyuu kicked off, Akaya following three seconds after with a _very_ irritated expression on his face. Determination streaking every line of his body, he quickly caught up to Yagyuu and passed him, completely ignoring the way his muscles protested.

"Yeah! Go Akaya!" Marui cheered, punching the air as he neared him. Akaya tagged him slightly harder than necessary and he kicked himself off the wall and swam as fast as he could towards the shallow end.

"See?" Yukimura said, patting a smug Akaya on the head. "You're a very good swimmer if you try."

"Yep! Yagyuu-senpai's _slow_, isn't he?"

"He's not slow. Swimming just isn't one of his strong points." He was tagged and set off.

Marui was already halfway down towards the shallow end. He pulled his head above water to pull in a gasp of air and then ducked back down under the water. He stared in astonishment as Yukimura passed him, swimming close to the bottom. He redoubled his efforts, kicking furiously.

"I'm surprised Akaya can swim so well," Yanagi said conversationally, still writing. "I suppose it's his natural flexibility. It probably helps that he's trained himself to ignore his body's warning signs to a degree as well."

"Either that, or he's just a competitive little brat," said Niou, settling himself on Yanagi's other side so that he could watch the race better. "I'm personally betting on the latter. Mura's really good though. Look, he's half a length ahead of Maru already."

"Mm. The addition to his normal speed is probably due to the fact that he's swimming along the bottom, where the water's a lot denser. If you can control your need for oxygen, then it's a very effective method. Most people can't, however. Mura's high oxygen absorption is what enables him to do that."

"Yeah, I'd pretend to be interested in what you just said, but I can't be bothered," Niou shrugged. "He's a good swimmer. I'm just gonna leave it at that."

Yukimura tagged Yagyuu and the Gentleman set off down the final stretch. Marui was only halfway up the pool, trying his best as Akaya alternately cheered and yelled at him. He finally reached his goal and tagged him, and Akaya splashed furiously after Yagyuu. But the headstart Yukimura had given him was just a little too much for Akaya to compete with, and Yagyuu just about made it to the finish line/wall.

"Winner, Yagyuu-Yukimura!" Jackal yelled. Marui groaned in disappointment and swam down the pool to console and commiserate with Akaya.

"If you hadn't given us the time penalty at the start then we'd have won," he complained to Jackal. "How was Akaya meant to know he wasn't meant to go on 'wasabi'?"

"Yagyuu seemed to know just fine," Jackal said firmly.

"Yeah, but he knows everything!"

"No, that's Yanagi," Yagyuu said. "Yagyuu, Yanagi. Golf, data. There's a subtle difference that I'm sure you can work out if you try."

"… I can't tell if he's being serious or very, very sarcastic," Sanada whispered. Niou snorted with laughter.

"Our time's up, anyway," Yanagi said, closing his notebook and standing up. "Come on, Genichiroh."

"Yeah, that reminds me!" Marui said, swimming over, leaving Akaya to suitably punish Jackal by holding him underwater. "How come you're not taking part, fukubuchou?"

"Because the chlorine's very bad for his eyes," Yanagi said.

"So make him wear goggles!"

Niou burst into loud cackles, obviously picturing the image in his head.

"I have most of the data I need to set up a training schedule for Genichiroh," said Yanagi. "So there was no need for him to take part."

"But you have that on Mura, and he's still taking part!"

"Yes, but he likes to swim anyway. Now come out of the pool."

"You're not the boss of me," Marui muttered, but he got out anyway. Yanagi reopened his notebook and recorded Marui's questionable use of the westernised expression before heading off with Sanada.

The changing rooms were quite small and cramped, but luckily there was no-one else there to take up space.

"It was kind of your uncle to let us use the pool on a bank holiday," said Yagyuu.

"Yeah, he can be pretty cool sometimes," Marui grinned, perching on a bench and contentedly watching Akaya get dressed.

"Can we come again?" Jackal asked. "I had fun today."

"I don't see why not." Yukimura shrugged into his shirt. "I'm sure Renji can join us next time too, instead of collecting data."

"Yeah. But you," Marui pointed sternly at Jackal, "are _not_ allowed to referee again."

"Spoilsport."

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Brief reminders:

Fukubuchou: Vice-captain

Aka-chan: Baby. Akaya's nickname.

Na: Male version of 'ne'. Generally used as a sort of seeking confirmation thing.

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Sandy: Hey ho:) Like last time, if you're kind enough to leave a review, could you please quote your favourite phrase/sentence/whatever from either this drabblething or one of the others (both would be totally helpful –winks-), that'd be really helpful to me. :) Thanks, I'd really appreciate it. But you don't have to if you don't feel like it, of course x3 Please let me know what you thought of this drabblething, anyway!

As always, questions, comments, suggestions, etc are welcome.

Until next time!


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